Carnage of distracted driving

The culture of driving while texting or talking on phone is fast catching up in Uganda.

It is particularly common among young drivers and drivers of personal vehicles with tainted windows. The dark glasses probably give them more privacy to hide from law enforcers.

While it is illegal under the traffic and road safety rules of Uganda, many people continue to do it and many get away undetected.

"About one-third of young Ugandan driver's text or make phone calls as they drive. There are many other distractions on the road or in the car but the behaviour of drivers making calls or texting while driving has been on an upward trend in recent years, particularly in urban areas. It has become a huge problem especially with the new craze for social media (Whatsapp, WeChat, Facebook and Twitter) by high risk groups such as the youth.

Distracted driving is a glaring threat to road safety. Ultimately, it exposes the driver and other road users to the risk of accidents," Justine Opus, the Assistant Superintendent of Police at the Central Police Station, Kampala, explains.

It is difficult to document crashes caused by driver distractions such as phones. Experts, however, point out that crashes attributable to driver distractions fall within the 81.8% causes linked to human factors, as highlighted in the  2014 Uganda Police traffic and road safety report.

Texting while driving is suicidal not only for individual drivers but to other road users.

Although there are other sources of driver distractions, cellular phones have attracted global attention because of the exponential growth in cellular phone ownership.

By the end of 2015, there were more than seven billion mobile cellular subscribers across the globe, corresponding to a penetration rate of 97%, up from 738 million in 2000, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency for information and communications technology.

Studies from a number of countries suggest that the proportion of drivers using mobile phones while driving has increased over the past 5-10 years, from 1% to up to 11%.

RISKS

According to the 2015 World Health Organisation, drivers who use mobile phones are four times more likely to be involved in traffic accidents than those not using one.

The factsheet says if a driver is distracted for just two seconds at 50km/h, they will travel 27 metres blindly.

BANS ON DISTRACTED DRIVING

In the United States, about a dozen states have been enforcing tough laws aimed at stopping distracted driving.

All government employees are now banned from texting while driving whenever they are on the job, driving a federal vehicle, or using a government-supplied cell phone. This executive order affects nearly 4.5 million employees across the US, including postal workers and military personnel.

THREAT TO ROAD SAFETY

Scholars, Redelmeir & Tibshiran, 1997 established that use of cellular phones by motorists elevates the risk of road traffic crashes by four-fold comparable to driving with blood alcohol content beyond the legal limit.

"Phone distracted drivers have difficulty in maintaining speed and lane positions, pumping brakes, observing traffic rules and keeping shorter distances behind other vehicles. A driver using a mobile phone will have slower reaction time in the event of an accident. Using mobile phones can cause drivers to take their eyes off the road, their hands off the steering wheel, and their minds off the road and the surrounding situation. It is this last type of distraction which appears to have the biggest impact," Isaac Tusubira of Easy Ride Accident Solutions says.

Studies in South Africa have shown that drivers speaking on phones, whether hands-free or hand-held, are four times more likely to be in a crash. Their crash risk remains higher than normal for up to 10 minutes after the call has ended.

Distracted drivers are inclined to failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task.

"A distracted driver will, for example, look through the windshield but may not process everything visually in the roadway. That means they will not effectively monitor their sorrundings, seek and identify potential hazards and respond to unexpected situations.

The danger of inattention blindness is that when a driver fails to notice events in the driving environment, either at all or when it is too late, it becomes impossible to execute a safe response such as a steering maneuver or braking to avoid a crash," Fred Onoria, a retired traffic Police officer explains.

The effect of distracted driving has been shown to be equivalent to, and in some cases even worse than drunk driving. Recent studies in the United States show that driver reaction times are 30% slower while using a hands-free phone than driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 grams per deciliter (the current Ugandan limit) and nearly 50% slower than driving under normal conditions.

STAYING SAFE ON THE ROAD

Opus says the safest way to drive is to have all your attention focused on the road ahead and with both hands on the wheel. "Self-regulation is needed. Drivers should take individual responsibility to avoid using mobile phones," Opus states.

"It is better to use the voicemail or even miss a call than put yourself and other road users at risk. Use hands-free microphones. If you have to make a call, ask somebody else in the car to dial or answer it for you. If you think it is an important call, stop in a suitable spot to take it.

Never take notes or write down numbers while driving. When in heavy traffic, ask the caller to call back when it is safer," George Sseremba, a driving instructor at God's Grace Driving School in Ntinda, says.

As a driver, inform expected callers that you will not take any phone calls as you drive.

GOVERNMENT ACTION

Government needs to be more proactive in enforcing traffic rules relating to phone usage and stricter penalties should be imposed on those who violate them.  

Onoria says advertising, educational campaigns aimed at high-risk groups such as the youth should be stepped up.

"Telecom companies need to launch info-graph and text message campaigns to warn young mobile phone users about the perils of using phones while driving," he says.